The 2022 conference of IATM International Association of Transport Communication Museums gave us our most recent opportunity to spread the word about WIMH (Working Industrial and Mobile Heritage). IATM is the world umbrella body for transport museums (and also embraces postal and telecom museums in its membership) , for more info see www.iatm.museum. Many of the national level railway museums in Europe are active IATM members. With a gap of three years in physical conferences, there was a heavy flow of offers to make presentations so a “short slots for all” policy was adopted giving a maximum 15 minutes duration for each subject.
Peter Ovenstone (in his dual Fedecrail and EN IEH Committee roles) thus gave a brief presentation on Mon 29.08: Working Industrial and Mobile Heritage – New Title & New Platform Group outlining developments so far since the July 2021 inaugural meeting and explaining our work in progress on the Fossil Fuels Report. Some IATM museums are “on the side lines” on the fossil fuels issue having only static collections, but of course very many others (rail, road and maritime in particular) have for many years included operation of historic material in their annual programmes.
The presentation also emphasised that, although our primary focus is on Europe, we are keen to involve world level umbrella bodies in the WIMH partnership (e.g. existing links already established with TICCIH International Committee for Conservation of Industrial Heritage and WATTRAIN the world rail and tramway heritage body). He also stressed that WIMH partners are fully aware of the importance of taking a sustainable approach to continued operation (e.g. research into potential alternative fuels). For the meantime, we will continue to keep IATM and its members informed about developments with WIMH as we move forward.
Peter Ovenstone
Fedecrail Team + EN Industrial & Engineering Heritage Committee Co-Secretary
